Oban 25 Years Old 1963 Cask #564 (Moon Import)

This 25 year old is a rare old Oban, a 1963 vintage bottled around 1988 by the Italian house Moon Import from a single cask numbered 564. Independent Obans of this age and era are seldom seen, and it comes from the small West Highland distillery first run in 1794 in the West Highland port of Oban, among the oldest distilleries in the country.

Maturation was in a single ex-Bourbon barrel, a quarter of a century of slow ageing on a spirit from the distillery's traditional production. Oban's make is built on slow distillation through the lamp shaped stills, condensed in worm tubs run hot for generous copper contact, the mild and fruity spirit deepening over twenty five years in the wood. Italian importers like Moon Import were among the early champions of single cask Scotch, which is why a bottling of this age and rarity survives from the distillery at all.

Bottled at 46%, it shows a graceful old age. The lignin in the tired old wood lends a soft vanilla, coconut comes through from the lactones, and slow oxidation builds old oak and dried fruit over Oban's honey and a faded sea air. The smoke is light and the finish long, mellow and elegant, a scarce Italian record of the distillery in the 1960s.